Messages - Rhymnoceros

What is the admissions office looking for here? I mean, length/subject material. I started writing one, and I feel like its just a fellatio fest about their school. I'm just talking about their programs, but is there another thing I can discuss? And length?

Then you're on the right track my friend. It helps to mention programs and why they're so great in general and great for you, also location can be a topic as an explanation for your pull to the school in general. If they have things like LRAPs that are great for your plans or summer grants, etc. I wouldn't worry about it being too long, since when you run out of content it's kind of hard to come up with more. BSing too much will get obvious, although i guess its all kind of BS to an extent.

Any NYUers have experience with MACs for taking exams? I know you can use macs with the beta software, but the waiver from the tech department is kind of off putting since it mentions how the software isn't production level and is likely to have glitches. I don't want to have to buy windows to run boot camp, so if my mac doesn't work I'll be out of luck. Is the mac software reliable enough for me to use the mac as my sole computer?

Is that 10 year requirement for both appointed and elected judgeship positions?

I don't know. I've been curious about this as well, but it varies so much by state. It seems like with lots of states, the elected municipal court judge positions just require you to be an attorney of good standing while magistrate positions seem to require ten years experience. Some states even have positions for non attorneys to be judges or justices of the peace, but normally these are really parochial and not too prestigious, like administrative judges for social security or minor drug offenses.

Federal positions, which are all appointed, don't seem to require any time of work experience based on teh website. In fact, Supreme Court justices don't technically need a legal degree whatsoever to be appointed.

Well I don't know about every state, but most have either explicit year requirements, or de facto ones, of about 10 years experience as a lawyer. So you can't just become a judge straight from law school, and therefore must have paid a significant portion of your loans already. Most PI foregiveness plans require you to be on a 10 year repayment cycle and expire ten years after you graduate, even if you still have debt. So I doubt it would work simply for mechanical reasons.But as for whether it wouild even count as PI, I doubt it. Clerkships do not count as PI by most standards, and if being a judge's biotch doesn't count as PI, then I doubt being the biotch-er would.

EDIT: However, most of the jobs that have the highest chance of leading up to becoming a judge, like AUSA, do count as PI.

I had a similar grade jump: 2.8 first semester freshman year to a 3.8 the following semester. I included an addendum for all of my apps explaining that i had trouble adjusting at that it was part of the reason i took a year off before law school. I also changed majors between those two semesters and explained that the coursework was in a field i found more interesting. Finally I pointed to my upward trend as a sign of my increased maturity and proof that i was ready for law school.

All in all, I think it can be explained away pretty well if you show a strong upward trend and don't screw up again. I don't think i was any worse for wear despite managing to get a D in what is considered one of the easiest classes on campus during my freshman year.

Also, the only reason I mentioned Vassar is because I assumed where you did undergrad puts some amount of weight on your GPA, no? Isn't a 3.31 from Vassar looked at differently from a 3.31 from Columbia or a 3.31 from Hofstra?

The LSDAS will correct for known grade inflation/deflation at your school and adjust your GPA accordingly; so that GPA's are standardized (in theory, anyway).

This is incorrect, the LSDAS does nothing to account for the grading practices of a school such as a school that grade inflates. It only changes the scale used so that all grades are on the same 4.0 scale and so that minuses and pluses are worth the same on every transcript.

There is alot of stuff on the career services page, however, for statistics and placement in all sorts of fields. And while I only know where the PI job search guides are (here: http://its.law.nyu.edu/pilc/career/index.cfm) I'm sure that similar guides and resources exist for firm or government work.

Don't worry, you live in your Pollyannish paradise of idealism while someone else makes the hard choices for you.

Again, I am curious as to what you've contributed to the American polity that makes you feel entitled to make judgments about others in the manner that you do.

------------------------------

To the OP: one of the major differences between CLS and NYU is that NYU is much more of a stand-alone entity while CLS is more integrated into its parent university. The distinction just came to mind so I thought I would throw it out in case it was relevant to your decision.

Rhymnoceros: getting started a little early, are we?

Haha, It's totally a joke I swear. I have nothing bad I can seriously say about Columbia. I feel like I have to wait until at least half way through 1L before I can change my name to resident NYU Troll.